JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri lawmakers are again considering legislation that would increase funding to allow local governments to test for additional radioactive waste around contaminated sites in the ӣƵ region.
The Missouri House Special Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs on Monday discussed the bill sponsored by Republican state Rep. Mark Matthiesen of O’Fallon. It’s similar to legislation Matthiesen proposed last year but includes even more money for testing.
“There’s a lot of concern that the testing that has already happened … was not sufficient enough — that we need to go farther, that people are still in harm’s way right now, today,” Matthiesen said.
Matthiesen, whose district includes a nuclear waste disposal site supervised by the U.S. Department of Energy, proposed legislation in 2018 that established the fund, but money was never appropriated to it. This fiscal year marks the first time the state has allocated any funding.
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Last year, Matthiesen proposed $300,000 a year for investigations, but this year’s bill would transfer $1 million into the fund each year.
“I would throw any amount on this so that we can do the testing that’s needed,” he said. “However, realistically speaking, if a million got funded every year for a handful of years, we could address the most pressing concerns that a lot of people are having right now today.”
ӣƵ has struggled for decades with remnant radioactive waste from the World War II-era effort to build the world’s first atomic bomb.
Uranium was refined in downtown ӣƵ for use in the development of the bomb. After the war, it was trucked to ӣƵ County, often falling off of trucks along the way. It was dumped at the airport, susceptible to the wind and rain, and contaminated the adjacent Coldwater Creek.
As suburban neighborhoods sprung up along Coldwater Creek, generations of children and families were exposed to the radioactive waste, elevating residents’ risk of certain cancers.
The waste was sold and moved to a site in Hazelwood, also along Coldwater Creek, so that a company could extract valuable metals. Eventually, the remnant radioactive material was dumped in the West Lake Landfill where it remains today.
Coldwater Creek is being cleaned up by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers while the Environmental Protection Agency is overseeing the cleanup of the West Lake Landfill.
The EPA announced earlier this month that it expanded the area of the West Lake Landfill that requires remediation by 40 acres after discovering contamination was more widespread than the agency previously thought. Crews will need to dig up an additional 20,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and debris. The cost of the project is now nearly $400 million, up from $229 million.
Following the EPA’s decision, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources wrote the federal agency warning of a “high likelihood” of radioactive contamination in the adjacent Bridgeton Landfill, which is experiencing a “subsurface smoldering event,” a chemical reaction that heats and consumes waste like a fire but lacks oxygen.
The EPA said it “has no new evidence or information to support any claim that radiologically-impacted material … is present anywhere else in the Bridgeton Landfill.”
Asked about the EPA’s statement, a spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources said the state agency and EPA “are in full agreement regarding the presence and location of radiological material at the Bridgeton.”
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ӣƵ’ long history of radioactive contamination. Highlights of 10 years of Post-Dispatch coverage.
From the public announcement that Mallinckrodt Chemical Works helped refine uranium for the Manhattan Project to the present, the ӣƵ has covered the issue of storing radioactive waste and subsequent contamination of Coldwater Creek, Weldon Spring and surrounding areas.
Subscribers to the digital archives can search for even older coverage at .
The federal government wants to test soil and water at a popular hiking spot in north ӣƵ County for radiological contamination.
Mallinckrodt Chemical Works processed uranium ore for the Manhattan Project beginning in the 1940s; radioactive waste from that production contaminated areas in north ӣƵ County along the Coldwater Creek watershed and around Weldon Spring in St. Charles County.
The legislation will be the subject of a hearing on March 7.
Three of Linda Morice’s close relatives died of cancer in Florissant near Coldwater Creek. Now she is the author of “Nuked: Echoes of the Hiroshima Bomb in ӣƵ.”
Corps insists Jana is safe. Lawyers claim test results reveal contamination there and at other North County sites.
The report marked the third round of testing produced this fall regarding possible radioactive contamination at the school.
“From a radiological standpoint, the school is safe,” said Col. Kevin Golinghorst at a board meeting of the Hazelwood School District.
After Thanksgiving break, the school's 375 students will be reassigned to Barrington, Brown, Coldwater, McCurdy or Walker elementaries.
In response to recent public outcry, the Corps vowed to test the “entire school property” and share preliminary results within two weeks. A parent leader is already skeptical.
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Hazelwood School District officials announced the decision at a packed school board meeting Tuesday night.
Coldwater Creek's issues with radioactive soil begin with work done near downtown ӣƵ for the Manhattan Project during World War II. We …
The GAO will evaluate the Defense Department’s management of the cleanup program, among other subjects, her office said.
Backers say it would ensure smaller projects that can still kick up potentially radioactive soil get the same testing and remediation from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as government and utility projects do.
Radioactive contamination in the area has raised safety concerns.
The cost of removing radioactive contamination, a legacy of ӣƵ’ key role in the production of atomic weapons, continues to climb.
But a lawsuit brought against the company by Republic Services was recently dismissed.
Coldwater Creek was contaminated decades ago by nuclear waste from the production of weapons during World War II.
Mallinckrodt's predecessor, Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, processed uranium at its factory in ӣƵ used in the U.S. government's Manhattan Project, the World War II-era program that produced the first nuclear weapons. Hazardous residue and materials leftover from the process were disposed of at West Lake Landfill in 1966.
The study is a critical step toward obtaining additional resources for residents, said Kim Visintine of the group who pushed for the study.
Exposure to the radiological contaminants that polluted the creek could raise the risks of bone cancer, lung cancer and leukemia.
At a packed “listening session” Tuesday night, scores of community members told EPA officials that its proposal to partially remove the site's radioactive contamination is insufficient.
Col. Bryan Sizemore, ӣƵ District commander for the corps, said "10,000-plus" samples have been collected from the area, as part of ongoing efforts to test along the length of the creek.
The meeting is the first since an additional area of contamination was identified and coincides with high-profile developments bringing attention to the area's radioactive waste.
Documentary on North County's radioactive legacy hits airwaves with comment period underway for West Lake proposal.
A bill that would apply to residents of the Spanish Village neighborhood and a nearby mobile home park has passed the Missouri Senate.
The proposal would affect about 90 homes in the Spanish Village subdivision in North County.
Beginning later in March, radioactively contaminated soil will be removed from residential properties in Hazelwood, near Coldwater Creek.
Announcement comes one week after Bridgeton couple filed a lawsuit alleging home was contaminated.
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The bill still must pass the U.S. House, where similar legislation has been proposed by the area's representatives.
Health department originally planned to design and conduct its own study of the radioactively contaminated creek
Close to 10,000 soil samples have been collected and tested from the creek, its banks and the surrounding flood plain.
The cleanup effort could take another 10 years.
But Corps of Engineers says it doesn't have money to cover upfront costs.
The filmmakers highlight region's involvement in nuclear weapons production, and why more locals don't know about it.
Hazelwood kept the park open during the summer while cleanup began
The Army Corps confirmed, for the first time, the discovery of radioactive contamination on some residential properties.
Most affected properties are along Palm Drive, just northeast of Lindbergh and I-270.
Congressional delegation asks U.S. Department of Energy to look into putting Corps of Engineers in charge of radioactively contaminated landfill.
St. Cin and Duchesne Parks along Coldwater Creek will be cleaned up over the next four months.
Encapsulation might be safer than removal, experts say.
The facilities were built for monthly and annual training.
ӣƵ County health department officials have joined their state counterparts in asking for further investigation into health concerns tha…
A state health report shows high rates of cancers in North County that have been associated with radiation exposure.
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ӣƵ County to launch an investigation of Coldwater Creek, which residents fear is linked to cancers and other diseases.
Survey of 3,300 people found 202 thyroid cancers or conditions, 113 brain tumors and 39 appendix cancers
About 150 fill union hall to discuss landfill fire, radioactive waste
But former residents say study ignores people who moved away before their cancers were diagnosed.
The group says regulators and Republic Services are downplaying the risk associated with an underground fire; the company says critics owe Bridgeton residents an apology.
